I could pretend I’m super sophisticated and have extensive, meaningful knowledge about wine but that would be a complete farce. I’d say I’m just a step or two above Michael Scott, really. Some may turn their noses up at Riesling because it is on the sweeter side of whites, it’s all good. More for me! Really though, Riesling is my personal favorite and when I came across the brilliant idea of strawberry Riesling slushies I could only wonder 1) why I hadn’t encountered these sooner and 2) how soon I could conceivably make them. If your ice cream maker is already chilled, these require about five minutes of actual effort and 20-30 minutes of patience (the hard part). And in case you were wondering, they are a nice antidote for a long Monday after which you arrive home to a non-functioning air conditioner. Yes, indeed.

Yield: about 3-4 servings

Ingredients

2 cups hulled and quartered strawberries

1 (750 ml) bottle Riesling, preferably chilled

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

In a blender or food processor, combine the strawberries, Riesling, sugar and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn until a slushy/icy mixture has formed. Pour into serving glasses, garnish with additional berries if desired, and serve immediately.

*Because I’m sure someone will ask, I haven’t tried this without an ice cream maker so I can’t say for certain whether that will work. However, I think that if you added maybe 50% more strawberries (to decrease the overall percentage of alcohol, thereby making the mixture more amenable to freezing), and used a granita technique, you would have something pretty darn close. If you try it, let me know!